


Never in Time for a Dance

by navaan



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Ficlet, M/M, Pining, Possibly Unrequited Love, Post-Spider-Man: Homecoming, established pepper potts/tony stark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-31
Updated: 2017-07-31
Packaged: 2018-12-09 10:27:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11667252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/navaan/pseuds/navaan
Summary: Steve learns of it on from the news.





	Never in Time for a Dance

**Author's Note:**

> Written as Bingo fill for the "WTF" square on my [Bingo card](http://navaan.dreamwidth.org/548911.html).

Sam is out getting them food and he's alone in a run-down motel room, zapping through channels to find the news. Keeping up with what was going on in the world is the only thing he has time and patience for these days, before he falls into bed and sleeps and then gets up and does what needs to be done next. 

Life on the run brought focus.

He stopped his zapping when he realized he was staring at Tony's face - his _smiling_ face.

The remote control nearly slipped from his fingers and he swallowed hard.

Since their fight he hadn't seen much new footage of Tony pop up anywhere that wasn’t of Iron Man, mask down, the man tightly hidden in the armor. He'd only recently learned about him selling the Tower. He had not expected the news to hurt. He hadn't lived there for more than a few weeks, constantly rushing out to fight what was left of Hydra, and he had _wanted_ Tony to move to the Avengers facility and not be alone after what had happened.

Now none of them would ever go back to Stark Tower and Steve felt like something important had been lost.

Another piece of his past.

It was ridiculous.

Pepper Potts is the one talking - about the new facility and the selling of the Tower and the recent incident that involved a Stark Industries' private plane that crashed over Coney Island. She looks good as always, but Steve only has eyes for Tony. Last time he saw him, he'd looked run down and unhappy, his face pinched and dark circles under his eyes. He hadn’t let himself see it before it was too late. Now it _is_ too late.

 _We’re taking a break,_ Ton said about himself and Pepper back then and until then Steve had been so convinced their relationship was unbreakable, that Tony was happy, that Tony would have all the things Steve had given up on with Pepper and wasn’t looking for anymore. And then Tony said those words.

Too late.

At the wrong time.

And now things have changed again.

“Engaged,” the caption reads in the corner and he hears Tony’s voice but not his words. A dark cloud hangs over his head and he isn’t sure he can work through the dark feeling of dread that clutches at his insides suddenly. A bullet has pierced his flesh and yet there is no wound.

This is good, so good. Good news for Tony and doesn’t Tony deserve that this is working out after all? He deserves some happiness. Steve knows what he’s gone through and the one thing he understands better now, is that Tony has been driven by his deep-rooted feelings of sadness and guilt for far too long. He looks so happy, looks so much better than he looked… with Steve and the team. With him. 

He stares at his hands and feels sad.

 _So was I._ Tony’s voice ghosts through his mind and Steve presses his eyes shut, trying to suppress the memory.

Something is lost now; something more than friendship that he’s been too much of a coward to even look at closely. All his life, he thinks, he’s been too late for that one dance. Even when he hasn’t ever thought he could have it. It pains him. Peggy would laugh at him. 

Tony would laugh at him.

But Tony is happy.

Maybe it’s for the best.

Steve doesn’t know how to make anyone happy. He knows struggles and war and losing the people who matter. 

He turns off the TV and leaves the room to take a shower. He hopes it will clear his mind. Clad in nothing but boxers and a t-shirt he ends up on the edge of the bed again. He pulls the burner phone from his jacket pocket and stares at it. He always keeps it at hand in case it rings; in case he is needed, in case he can be a good friend to Tony for once. So far there has been no indication Tony hasn’t just thrown his own burner away the minute he got it.

Biting his lips and trying to get over the dark jealous feeling he has no right to, he types: “Congratulations.”

It takes him ten minutes to actually send it.

Maybe Tony won’t even see it.

But sending it feels right.

By the time Sam arrives with the food, Steve is back in uniform and has a map on the table, planning their next move. 

“Are you alright?” Sam asks and Steve wants to wipe the frown off his own face, but he can’t just yet. “Man, you need to shave too. You look like a lumberjack in a sci-fi space suit.”

He rubs at the stubble on his face and realizes he hasn’t even bothered to look in the mirror long enough to notice. “It’s fine,” he says. He’ll grow it out. It’s time for a change.

Sam just stares at him as if he’s lost his mind. Then he slowly asks: “Did you see the news? About Stark Tower?”

“Yes,” he answers and points at the map. “We’re moving here.”

Reading his moods better than any of the others, Sam lets it rest, watches him get busy and focused and nods and shrugs and _lets him_. It’s damning, even if Sam can’t actually know what he’s trying to run away from.

Something is lost.

A future.

A possibility.

An unnamed hope has slipped through his grasp.

Steve’s been stuck in that cycle for far too long.

Time to accept once and for all that there’s nothing else for him and move on. That at least he has become quite good at. 

He’ll never be in time for a dance.

Time to focus on what he can do.


End file.
